Reference no: EM133317544
Question: A 16-year-old high school student and chronic runaway was pulled over by police on the 295 Expressway for driving erratically. She pulled out a toy handgun, pointed it at the officer, and was shot and killed. In a separate incident, a 15-year-old cancer patient was shot by PG PD police when he entered a sandwhich shop in which three officers were eating and pulled a gun on them.
These incidents are difficult to explain because they do not appear to be random acts of passion, rage, or felony. As one officer put it, "Why would you point a gun at a police officer, unless you wanted to be shot?
Some experts believe that incidents such as these are forms of a suicide by cop, where individuals force police to shoot at them in situations that normally would not involve threat or force. Studies have found that many of these shooting victims are white males in their 20s with a history of alcohol or drug abuse profile similar to suicide victims in general who are prone to suffer from depression, hopelessness, and deteriorating personal relationships.
The use of police to carry out a death wish is difficult to explain, but suicide is often difficult for a person to carry out, and using a police officer removes the burden from the individual. Also, life insurance policies do not pay for suicide victims and most religions forbid suicide, making it more problematic for a person to consider. There are no statistics, but it is estimated that up to 10 percent of fatal police shootings are provoked by those actively seeking to die.